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Sunday, October 21, 2012

French TV reporter sexually assaulted at Tahrir Square

A correspondent for France 24 TV was 'savagely attacked' near Cairo's Tahrir Square after being seized by a crowd, the network said on Saturday.

The news channel said in a statement that Sonia Dridi was attacked around 10:30pm on Friday after a live broadcast on a protest at the square and was later rescued by a colleague and other witnesses.

It was the latest case of violence against women at the epicenter of Egypt's restive protests.

'More frightened than hurt,' wrote Dridi in French on her Twitter page on Saturday.
Referring in English to a colleague, she tweeted: 'Thanks to @ashrafkhalil for protecting me in #Tahrir last nite. Mob was pretty intense. thanks to him I escaped from the unleashed hands.'

Ashraf Khalil, who works with France 24's English language service, said the crowd was closing in on him and Dridi while they were doing live reports on a side street off Tahrir.

He said the attack and rescue took about half an hour, but it felt like a lot longer.
'The crowd surged in and then it went crazy. It was basically me keeping her in a bear hug, both arms around her and face-to-face,' he said, estimating that at least 30 men were involved.

Khalil said they retreated into a fast food restaurant with a metal door, to keep her out of the reach of the attackers.

He said they hustled into a car, and some men banged on it as it sped away. Some of their belongings had been stolen, he said.

"I was groped everywhere. I realised [later], when someone closed my shirt, that it was opened, but not torn off. I avoided the worst because I have a good belt," and a friend helped her out, she said.

Now that this has been repeated so many times, I think we can say that this is an Egyptian cultural thing, and as such it is as worthy of respect as calling for the death of infidels, firebombing media that makes fun of Islamic prophets, bombing Jews in pizza shops, shooting rockets at civilians and other cultural habits in Arab countries. How dare the Western media take sides! This is another sacred tradition that shows the importance of masculinity in Arab culture!

And the fact that police were nowhere to be found is all the proof you need that this is not considered a problem in Egypt today, despite the occasional group that complains about it.

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